Feather‐like morphology of poly(methyl methacrylate)/poly(ethylene oxide) blends: The effect of cooling rate and poly(methyl methacrylate) content

Abstract

The effect of cooling rate on the crystallization morphology and growth rate of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and PEO/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends has been observed by Hot Stage Polarized Microscopy (HS-POM). The isothermal crystallization kinetics study was carried out by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The spherulite morphology has been observed for the neat PEO with molecular weight of 6000 g/mol. By adding of PMMA with molecular weight of 39,300 g/mol, the growth fronts become irregular. With the increasing of PMMA content, the irregularity of growth front becomes more obvious, and the feather-like morphology can be observed. When PMMA content is 60%, the spherulite is seriously destroyed. This phenomenon is more obvious for the slow cooling process. Based on the measurement of spherulite, the growth rate curves were obtained. According to the curves, it can be seen that the growth rate decreases with the increasing of PMMA content, and the growth rate during the slow cooling process is higher than that of the fast cooling process. The isothermal crystallization experiment indicates that the crystallization rate decreases dramatically with the increasing of PMMA content. And the Avrami parameter n was obtained, which is non-integral and less than 3. Finally, it can be concluded that the higher value of n can be obtained for the condition with low crystallization rate.

Improvement of electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of poly(methyl methacrylate)/poly(ethylene oxide) blend using graphene nanosheets

“…This is due to its interesting properties, such as good processability and optical properties, as well as by its wide applications. 14 –16 However, as an attractive candidate for further applications, PMMA/PEO blend suffers from inadequate electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. 15 The low price and outstanding properties of graphene nanoplatelet (GnP) make it a potential choice as a reinforcement filler in the preparation of polymer nanocomposites as compared to other nanofillers such as layered silicate clay and carbon nanotubes.…”

Mechanical Properties of Methyl Methacrylate Copolymers

“…Obvious hygroscopicity and poor wear resistance also limits its application. In order to make up the deficiency of PMMA itself, people are busy with PMMA modification to improve its wear resistance, flame retardant and heat resistant performance [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Based on previous work, MMA and copolymerization monomer was polymerized by bulk polymerization, and by adjusting the ratio of polymer to study the change of the polymer mechanics performance, in order to find a formula that the tensile strength of PMMA can be improved.…”